BURNABY, B.C. – Members of Vancouver-based grassroots collectives gathered at Burnaby Civic Square on Saturday March 11th to commemorate the revolutionary working class origins and the international actions of International Working Women’s Day (IWWD). Organizations present included Anakbayan BC, Defund 604 Network, Gabriela BC, Migrante BC, Samidoun Vancouver, Sulong UBC, the Worker Solidarity Network, and Unite Here Local 40.
Speakers highlighted the international struggles of working women and gender nonconforming people, addressing topics ranging from Indigenous matriarchs, structural violence towards working women and gender nonconforming people; international solidarity; and cultural performances, such as poetry readings by Filipino migrant workers.
Themes of family separation caused by migration, the need to work multiple jobs to pay for rising costs of basic commodities and housing in Canada, as well as to send remittances to their families in their home country were also discussed by some of the speakers.
“There are no jobs back home due to decades of government neglect and imperialist plunder,” said Kristine Castanos from Gabriela BC. “This forces millions of Filipinos every year to leave our country to seek employment to support their families in places such as Canada. Canada welcomes these Temporary Foreign Workers knowing they are able to further exploit their labour, leaving them in precarious work situations, with no rights, no status and given extreme barriers when applying for Permanent Residency.”
After the speeches, all present mobilized to march around the block, disrupting the flow of traffic and chanting in ode to the rights of workers, women and migrants. Many surrounding cars honked in support.
“We highlight the ‘workers’ in IWWD because it is only through our class consciousness will we be able to understand the root causes of our oppression,” Castanos declared. “We need to organize ourselves around our common struggles and connect them internationally at a grassroots level.”
While women’s history month is drawing to a close, this coalition of grassroots collectives will take further worker-led actions on May 1 at Grandview Church, where the Worker Solidarity Network will host its May Day event. More information will be released closer to the date.
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Media Contacts
Jiyoon Ha
WSN Communications Coordinator
comms@workersolidarity.ca
Kristine Castanos
Gabriela BC Organizer – Available for Comment (email comms@workersolidarity.ca)
